Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Light Quotes

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Were a star quenched on high, For ages would its light, Still travelling downward from the sky, Shine on our mortal sight. So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him liesUpon the paths of men.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I see, but cannot reach, the height That lies forever in the light.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Some feelings are quite untranslatable; no language has yet been found for them. They gleam upon us beautifully through the dim twilight of fancy, and yet when we bring them close to us, and hold them up to the light of reason, lose their beauty all at once, as glow worms which gleam with such a spiritual light in the shadows of evening, when brought in where the candles are lighted, are found to be only worms like so many others.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The swallow is come! The swallow is come! O, fair are the seasons, and light Are the days that she brings, With her dusky wings, And her bosom snowy white!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
By unseen hands uplifted in the light Of sunset, yonder solitary cloud Floats, with its white apparel blown abroad, And wafted up to heaven.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Torrent of light and river of air,
Along whose bed the glimmering stars are seen,
Like gold and silver sands in some ravine
Where mountain streams have left their channels bare!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Down sank the great red sun, and in golden glimmering vapours Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descending from Sinai.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
As artist or as artisan, Pursuing his own fantasies, Can touch the human heart, or please, Or satisfy our nobler needs, In Nature's footprints, light and fleet, As he who sets his willing feet And follows fearless where she leads.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
After a day of cloud and wind and rain Sometimes the setting sun breaks out again, And touching all the darksome woods with light, Smiles on the fields until they laugh and sing, Then like a ruby from the horizon's ring, Drops down into the night.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
See yonder fire! It is the moon slow rising o'er the eastern hill. It glimmers on the forest tips, and through the dewy foliage drips In little rivulets of light, and makes the heart in love with night.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is no light in earth or heaven but the cold light of stars; and the first watch of night is given to the red planet Mars.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"O father! I see a gleaming light.
Oh say, what may it be?"
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Stronger than steel is the sword of the Spirit;
Swifter than arrows, the light of the truth;
Greater than anger is love that subdueth.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
O Bells of San Blas in vain
Ye call back the Past again;
The Past is deaf to your prayer!
Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into light;
It is daybreak everywhere.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The lamps are lit, the fires burn bright. The house is full of life and light.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The grave itself is but a covered bridge,
Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I dislike an eye that twinkles like a star. Those only are beautiful which, like the planets, have a steady, lambent light, are luminous, but not sparkling.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I am the Angel of the Sun
Whose flaming wheels began to run
When God's almighty breath
Said to the darkness and the Night,
Let there be light! and there was light.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Stars of the summer night!
Far in yon azure deeps,
Hide, hide your golden light!
She sleeps!
My lady sleeps!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face — the face of one long dead —
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow